The South in the German Imaginary by Bauer Lukas

Author:Bauer, Lukas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peter Lang AG
Published: 2015-05-22T00:00:00+00:00

1 The bucolic imagery associated with Arcadia dates back to Virgil’s pastoral poetry (Bucolica). With the revival of classical culture and art in the Renaissance, the topos of Arcadia was renewed and became lodged in the bloodstream of Western culture, becoming a popular motif in the eighteenth century. The motto Et in Arcadia Ego became popular, particularly through a series of paintings by Nicolas Poussin set in an idyllic landscape and that depicted a sarcophagus bearing the inscription, where the deceased was lamented by a group of shepherds. Originally it was understood to signify the omnipresence of death, even in Arcadia. However, by the eighteenth century this meaning had significantly changed, being generally regarded as signifying that the deceased had lived in Arcadia. In Herder’s poem Andenken an Neapel (1787), Italy becomes the embodiment of Arcadia and the motto becomes an evocation of Italy. It is this latter meaning, in which Goethe’s use of the motto should be understood (FA, vol. 15/2, 1168–70).

2 IR 179.

3 The Hurons were popularised in Europe in Voltaire’s novella Le Huron ou l’ingénu (1767) (FA, vol. 15/2, 1306).

4 Pompeii was rediscovered in 1749.

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